HD Chapter 10: The Social World of Adolescence

Peers become more important in identity construction
• Adolescents re-work views of parents, de-idealize them and loosen their emotional dependency on them
• Steady decline from 11-17 y/o in adolescents’ willingness to endorse legitimacy of parents’ authority or their obligation to follow parental rules.

Concept of parent becomes more peripheral to child’s self-system
• Adolescents feel a loss of security as this process unfolds – increased sense of Frameworklessness

Profound changes in adolescence (body, sexual needs, hormonal shifts, capacity to reflect on the future and on the self, maturity demands) produce a state of instability and anxiety unique to adolescence

11 - 14 y/o

Middle Adolescence (14 - 18 y/o)

• Share common state of frameworklessness – shared sense of instability, uncertainty, coping with aloneness
• Peers are source of support
• Also, peer group is where and how adolescents construct their identity

Through social comparison and attribute substitution.

• Involves both imitation and identification
• Adolescents borrow and “try on” various behaviors and attributes they observe in others
• In early adolescence , teens “try on” a variety of behaviors

Three groups:
• The teen is involved in a nested set of peer relationships. Most time is spent with close friends.
• Also involved in second larger clique of 6-10 people - friends who eat lunch or go to class together
• Crowd: much larger third social circle

• May not share friendship, but they have similar interests, attitudes, behaviors, and appearance
• Reflect adolescent’s social status
• Association with crowd can be linked to teen’s drug/alcohol use, sexual behavior, academic commitment, achievement, psychiatric symptoms (internalizing vs. externalizing)

20% of students belong to popularity-conscious crowds (“populars” or “jocks”)
• Moderately achievement oriented and may engage in some illicit behavior

20% belong to “alienated” crowds
• “druggies” or “burnouts”
• Less invested in academic success
• May be involved in heavy drug use or delinquent behavior

30% belong to “average” crowds
• Moderately concerned about grades

Some crows defined by ethnicity (10-15%)

<5% belong to high academic achievement crowds – unlikely to use drugs

Social information processing
• Emotional brain system/subcortical structures
• Amygdala and hippocampus
• Puberty: proliferation and then pruning of dopamine receptors – new pattern of receptor distribution

Dopamine: important in processing of emotion
• Puberty: rapid and dramatic increase in dopaminergenic activity – increase in reward seeking behavior
• Peer acceptance appears to literally be more rewarding post puberty than in childhood

• Own personalities and interests
• Types of crowds available
• Parents’ management of peer relationships

Authoritative - both responsive and demanding

Parents

Academic achievers

• Pros: responsibility, training, independence, manage money
• Cons: more hours = more problem behaviors (theft, drug/alcohol use)

Drinking, drug use, smoking, truancy, sexual behavior, high-speed driving, drunk driving, vandalism, delinquency

4 out of 5

Peak: 17 y/o
Drop off: early adulthood

• Begins in early childhood, continues throughout life; early conduct problems, aggressiveness, academic difficulties
• Early intervention is most effective

• Develops in adolescence, usually ends after
• Prognosis more favorable

Emotional Brain System matures first
• Adolescent experiences greater reward when making risky choices

Cognitive Control System matures later
• Via increased connectivity across brain regions
• Leads to improvements in speed of information processing, inhibitory control leads to improved logical thinking, decision-making, and self-regulation

Connections between emotional brain system and cognitive control system continue to develop throughout the mid-20s

• They are aware of risk, but respond to short-term rewards and do not engage in cost-benefit analysis similar to adults - they perceive relative costs worth the potential rewards
• Emotional system is activated, but not cognitive system

Essentially it is peer influence and further influences risky behavior. Book example: Shauna might reason that if her boyfriend and his friends are not worried about getting caught in some illegal scheme, then neither should she worry.